luckily my stay was only one day and it was a perfect amount of time to enjoy the city. i arrived late at night, navigated the metro and then walked 20 minutes through a suburby type area to find my host. the next day we left in a hurry and it wasn't until i was on the metro until i realized that i had forgotten my tickets to the last supper. not only had i already paid (double-digit), but it was likely sold out and i was not going to miss my one chance to see it. after silently panicking for a moment i calmly realized i could just find an internet cafe to print off a new one. this turned out to be more difficult than i had imagined, but several unhelpful italians and a few euros later i had the ticket. whew.
my first view of milan proper was, fittingly, the duomo. (i shot it in several types of light - monet -style - but i think this one is a favorite) i always remembered thinking it looked very pointy in the slides/textbooks. in person i mainly noticed the flatness. the inside is rather unremarkable, except for a nice ceiling on either side of the nave. but perhaps i'm just spoiled when it comes to cathedrals. shortly after seeing the duomo i met up with another assistant, gemma, and her friend from home (in sydney). they're both musicians which meant that at random intervals they were likely to burst into song, talk about the acoustics of a particular building, or comment on the off-key busking. they made for very good company. we walked through the galleria (fancy shops with a marble hallway under a glass dome) and tried on sunglasses in prada. we also saw the facade of la scala opera house - not really even worth mentioning - where they had seen a ballet the night before. for lunch we popped into a cafeteria-style yet nice restaurant where i had traditional risotto milanese for a mere 3,50. this is what's wonderful about the primi platti - just as delicious as the main course but smaller portions and less money.
after lunch we parted ways as i had a date with leonardo. i arrived at the santa maria della grazie 20 minutes prior to my appointed time, as requested. i was told to wait an additional 30 minutes past my ticket time. in the meantime there was a small anteroom with explanations of the painting and its destruction/restoration.. all in italian. the english version was in the next room, where we spent about 30 seconds before being let into the climatised room. i'm getting used to that. the refectory itself is a large empty room, bigger than i expected. the painting itself is up pretty high on the wall and they keep you a good 15 feet away. even so, you can see how masterfully it's been painted. especially when you compare it with whatever nonsense is on the opposite wall.
after a quick look around the castle and its 5 museums (only 1,50 for admission to all of them) and the rest of the old city, all located conveniently in walking distance, i met up with gemma and matt again. it was gemma's birthday so we had a small dinner of delicious pasta and questionable dessert (the lemon cake was chewy..). this turned out to be unnecessary as afterwards we met up with a few french guys (one of whom she'd met on the train) who took us to an aperitivo. one of italy's best accomplishments, as far as i'm concerned. you pay 7 euro for a cocktail of your choice and then have your pick of the extensive buffet of appetizers. they had quite a spread, including gnocchi, polenta, paella, and even chips and salsa. as we were stuffing ourselves, a waiter came around with foccacia and then nutella sandwiches. i think it was heaven. in between platefuls we managed to chat with the frenchies. it felt surprisingly good to speak french again, and they even said i parled vachement bien. if only they knew how good i was at franglais. at any rate, this ended being a nice end to my stay in milan and a good transition to my final destination...
my first view of milan proper was, fittingly, the duomo. (i shot it in several types of light - monet -style - but i think this one is a favorite) i always remembered thinking it looked very pointy in the slides/textbooks. in person i mainly noticed the flatness. the inside is rather unremarkable, except for a nice ceiling on either side of the nave. but perhaps i'm just spoiled when it comes to cathedrals. shortly after seeing the duomo i met up with another assistant, gemma, and her friend from home (in sydney). they're both musicians which meant that at random intervals they were likely to burst into song, talk about the acoustics of a particular building, or comment on the off-key busking. they made for very good company. we walked through the galleria (fancy shops with a marble hallway under a glass dome) and tried on sunglasses in prada. we also saw the facade of la scala opera house - not really even worth mentioning - where they had seen a ballet the night before. for lunch we popped into a cafeteria-style yet nice restaurant where i had traditional risotto milanese for a mere 3,50. this is what's wonderful about the primi platti - just as delicious as the main course but smaller portions and less money.after lunch we parted ways as i had a date with leonardo. i arrived at the santa maria della grazie 20 minutes prior to my appointed time, as requested. i was told to wait an additional 30 minutes past my ticket time. in the meantime there was a small anteroom with explanations of the painting and its destruction/restoration.. all in italian. the english version was in the next room, where we spent about 30 seconds before being let into the climatised room. i'm getting used to that. the refectory itself is a large empty room, bigger than i expected. the painting itself is up pretty high on the wall and they keep you a good 15 feet away. even so, you can see how masterfully it's been painted. especially when you compare it with whatever nonsense is on the opposite wall.
after a quick look around the castle and its 5 museums (only 1,50 for admission to all of them) and the rest of the old city, all located conveniently in walking distance, i met up with gemma and matt again. it was gemma's birthday so we had a small dinner of delicious pasta and questionable dessert (the lemon cake was chewy..). this turned out to be unnecessary as afterwards we met up with a few french guys (one of whom she'd met on the train) who took us to an aperitivo. one of italy's best accomplishments, as far as i'm concerned. you pay 7 euro for a cocktail of your choice and then have your pick of the extensive buffet of appetizers. they had quite a spread, including gnocchi, polenta, paella, and even chips and salsa. as we were stuffing ourselves, a waiter came around with foccacia and then nutella sandwiches. i think it was heaven. in between platefuls we managed to chat with the frenchies. it felt surprisingly good to speak french again, and they even said i parled vachement bien. if only they knew how good i was at franglais. at any rate, this ended being a nice end to my stay in milan and a good transition to my final destination...
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